The structure of global delay propagation in air transport
Blanco, Josu; Tugores, Antònia; Ramasco, José J.; Zanin, Massimiliano
Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 208, 104688 (2026)
Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review 208, 104688 (2026)
The modelling and understanding of how flight delays propagate between airports of a country or region is a major topic of research in air transport that has been tackled through different techniques in the last decade. Much less attention has been devoted to the large-scale structure of the propagation, i.e. if and how delays can propagate between regional networks and continents. By leveraging on two complementary analysis approaches, we show how such propagation takes place across the main world regions, describing how it is modulated by seasons, the number of flights connecting them and their relative distance. We further propose a methodology to detect which airports act as gateways for global-scale propagation, and discuss the operational applications of these findings.
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